Zinedine Zidane believes it’s “screwed up” Real Madrid have dropped five points in the space of a week following his side’s 1-0 loss against Levante in La Liga on Saturday.
Jose Morales’ second half finish proved to be the difference between the two sides at Ciutat de Valencia as Los Blancos made it consecutive games without victory, to slip off the pace of league leaders Barcelona in the title battle.
Having drawn 2-2 with Celta Vigo last Sunday, Madrid now face a sterner test in the shape of Premier League champions Manchester City in midweek when the pair meet in the Champions League last-16.
Zidane will now turn his eye to the visit of Pep Guardiola’s side as he looks to stoke his side’s European prowess back up to full heat, but the Frenchman admitted that, coupled with another likely lay-off for Eden Hazard, he has had better weeks.
“Hazard got hit on his bad ankle,” Zidane told his post-match press conference. “He has been hit in the ankle from the injury. We’ll have to do tests but it looks bad.
“We failed at the most important thing in football and that’s to score. It’s screwed up because in a week we’ve dropped five points, but this is football.
“We didn’t deserve that today. We went from more to less. They made their shots count. We can’t look back now.
“My players gave everything and I’m annoyed. Losing five points in two games is a bad moment for us. We’re playing for everything this week. We’ve got to keep our heads up. We’ve had good moments before and now we’re in a bad one but we’ll come out of this.”
Madrid will have the chance to wrestle back control of their title challenge when they face Barca in the second El Clasico of the current league campaign next weekend, but the absence of their Belgian playmaker is likely to sting, after he only returned against Celta from a three-month spell out of action with an ankle injury.
In a week where the Blaugrana have been granted powers to bring in an emergency transfer in the shape of former Leganes man Martin Braithwaite, Zidane will have to make do without any outside stop-gap, with Vinicius Junior likely to be asked to step in to cover if Hazard’s new problem proves as troublesome as first feared.
Source: Goal.com